Conventionally, gesture input devices have been proposed which are provided in devices having a graphical user interface (GUI) and allow a user to perform an operation of moving a pointer for selecting an item on a display screen or moving the item by intuitively making a hand movement indicating the movement of the pointer or the item. These gesture input devices allow the user to intuitively move the pointer or item on the display screen by means of his or her hand movement. Accordingly, the gesture input devices do not require users to take operation training as required in the case of conventional input devices such as a keyboard and a mouse, and provide an advantageous effect of allowing any user to perform intended operations. Furthermore, some of the proposed gesture input devices have a sensor for detecting a user movement such as a camera and thus do not require any input device such as a remote controller which can be provided or mounted. Using such a gesture input device, a user can always control a target device remotely by moving his or her hand.
In order to configure a practical GUI in such a gesture input device, a pointer indicating one of items on a display screen must be moved according to a hand movement, and at least a predetermined hand operation for changing a selection state of the item indicated by the pointer must be recognized. In connection with this, some of the conventional techniques are intended to change a selection state when a particular hand shape is recognized (see Patent Literature 1 and Patent Literature 2 as examples). On the other hand, one of the conventional techniques is intended to change a selection state based on recognition of a particular hand movement (see Patent Literature 3 as an example).